FLYING PIG RACING

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

ANRA SEASON OPENER

Man, I love drag racing! And you meet some incredible people...like Captain Kirk, and two honeymooners and a dog riding a 2 wheeled BMW with sidecar (complete with surfboard rack) across the country. We must be doing something right.

Once again the Flying Pig Racing pit was full of, um, characters: Autohaus Dan, Weldo Plasmoski (not Dan), my "new photog" Dave- with Jann and a dog in a minimouse dress, Kenny the nuke and his sidekick Ash, were joined by the south coast gang: surf gods Wayno (with wife Ai and Zena princess warrior pit), and Woolly Bear and Frank. The south coast crew had a couple drop-ins that added tons of color- Captain Kirk skated in from the Big Island, and the honeymooners cruised up from SoCal to join the fun. And then Wayno's sister and her husband rambled in from the desert to camp for a couple days and shoot some incredible pictures. In the next pit over, included in the festivities, was Chuck (if you don't share your toys...) and Cindy. Wow what a crew!

New friends were made, stories were told, great food was eaten, and we did some racing too. Wayne and Woolly showed up with plenty of new parts on their respective hot rods. (Haha-they are still figuring out that consistency comes from -don't touch that thing!)

Wayne was having plenty of issues with some wild temperature fluctuations, which ultimately manifested in what looks to be a head gasket or cracked block...suffered in round 1.

Woolly Bear found a busted valve spring a couple days before the race and showed up with a bunch of new stuff installed last minute. All was good, but he went too quick in round 1.

Me, in the mustang, had the best day racing in some time! I finally found some consistency at the starting line...due in large part to Wayne Rich talking me through his winning mentality. As a pro surfer and Hall Of Fame shaper, this guy has the cred and the experience I needed to learn from. He has helped get my head right...knowing how to approach qualifying and narrow the focus on race day.

Anyway, I ended up going 6 rounds, losing in the semis to friend and nemesis Dale Thomas.
I won several rounds on the tree, got lucky on one, and had a bye to the semi. When it was all said and done, I finished 3rd (in a field of 83 cars) and set us up to make a legit run at a championship this year. Can't ask for more than that!

The Flying Pig

Wayne Rich goes wheels up

Woolly Bear leaving hard

Ashley schoolin' Woolly on the fine art of hover boarding

Yep. That's a surfboard rack!

Lane Life

This dog rode cross country like that!

The honeymooners

Pit Life

B-Dawg tending to the fuel

Ai and Zena

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Off Season Prep for ANRA SEASON OPENER

During the off-season (well, ok, at the last minute prior to the start of the 2018 season) The Twin (aka "Weldo Plasmoski", aka "not Dan", aka "B-Dawg", my wingman Barry decided it was high time to put some fresh red and white on the ol' pig. So I obligingly dropped 'er off at his house so we could begin prepping. Now, if you know Barry, you know that he doesn't do anything half way. Me, on the other hand, well...that's a different story. So...after about 20 hours or so of both of us sanding, interspersed with a few bouts of minor body repair, I declared it to be ready for paint! Mind you, it ain't as easy as just sayin' it to B-Dawg. Remember- he does nothing half way. I had to repeatedly say "it's just a race car". And "it's good enough for who it's for:! Shoot, at one point his wife came out and caught him massaging on it after we had called it good. Even she had the mantra down: "It's Just A Race Car", she told him!

On the following Monday we rented a paint booth at San Luis Customs, and Barry laid down a stellar paint job, bringing the tired old pig back to life! While keeping the theme the same as the prior red/white combo, we kicked it up a notch with a brighter red and a whiter white. Oh yeah, and there is a little pearl action in the red. It came out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself!

There wasn't much else really to be done prep-wise...just an oil change, new 5-point harness, a new fuel cell to replace the aging one, and a good going over by Autohaus Dan to make sure we're mechanically sound and safe to race!

starting to get parts back on

Stripes and numbers back on

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

WAYNE RICH AND WOOLLY BEAR JOIN FLYING PIG RACING AT ANRA FALL NATIONALS

WOW! Where to begin?
What a blast we had at the ANRA Fall Nationals.
The usual suspects, Dan, Dave, Kenny and myself (absent Barry and J.C.) were joined by a couple of California surf legends turned badass drag racers, hall of fame surfboard shaper Wayne Rich of Wayne Rich Custom Surfboards and the ultimate fiberglass repair guru Woollybear, of
Woollybear Ding Repair!! along with Frank, helping Woolly sort out the beast.

Wayne and his boards

Woollybear's shop

Neither of these guys had been down the 1/4 mile before this day! So Wayne showed up with a newly acquired '74 Vega. He's been stressing on this thing for days leading up to this race and had a mad thrash just days prior, after breaking the starter case and turning it sideways to the flex plate on a late night start up at the shop. Having got it all back together he actually prepped a local street (we won't say where!) with some VHT and heat and tried a practice launch. Crazy stuff!

Meanwhile, Woollybear shows up with an absolute bitchin' 67 Nova pro-streeter. He was riding sleeper style with the rat-ish exterior look. Underneath was some of the cleanest sheet metal work I've seen.

In the pits

Woolly's Nova is a monster. After a few passes to sort things out and get her to launch and hook, he turned a 10.15 E.T. at something like 135MPH. That was with the beast up on the rev limiter somewhere around 1/2 track! No telling what that thing would run on an all out pass. One well built car!

This is priceless! This is Wayne's reaction after making his first pass in the Vega. A stout 10.56. I think he liked it!

The day was a blur, trying to keep track of all 3 cars. But here's the highlight- WAYNE WENT TO THE FINAL ROUND OF HOT ROD IN HIS FIRST ANRA RACE!, eventually losing to NHRA stock, super stock veteran Mark Kirby in the final. What a day!

I managed to make it 3 rounds in Hot Rod, and 2 rounds in D-Gas. Not a bad day at all...